City, county still not sold on former Steamboat Pilot & Today office building

A collection of images included in the sales brochure for the Steamboat Pilot & Today building. (Courtesy images)

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Despite a significant reduction in the price, the city of Steamboat Springs and Routt County are not jumping at the opportunity to purchase a large commercial building on the west side of town for office space.

The former Steamboat Pilot & Today office building at the corner of Elk River Road and Curve Plaza has 10,680 square feet of office space and 12,542 square feet of warehouse space.

Worldwest LLC, the former owner of the newspaper, was trying to sell the building along with 1.7 acres of vacant land along U.S. Highway 40 for $5.5 million.

Listing agent Cam Boyd, with Steamboat Sotheby's International Realty, said the Worldwest owners decided to subdivide the building lot from the vacant land.

The building is now listed for $4.3 million, and the land is listed for $1.5 million.

"It gets a lower price point on the building, and most of the interest has been on the building and not on the vacant land," Boyd said.

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The Steamboat Pilot & Today does not have a future financial interest in the building, and the newspaper's offices are now located in the 910 Yampa building at 32 10th St.

Both city and county officials have toured the building to see if it would be suitable for their future needs.

Suiter said he liked the building and the vacant land that was included.

"I think it would be a good location for a future City Hall," Suiter said.

The existing City Hall is about 60 years old.

The city estimated they would have to put $1.5 million into the Worldwest building to make it meet their needs.

"We're not going to build a new City Hall for $6 (million) or $7 million," Suiter said.

With the impending departure of the Smartwool merino wool company from the old Steamboat Springs Airport terminal with 7,957 square feet of office space, Suiter noted there was going to be a significant amount of office space available on the west side of town.

Routt County was eyeing the Worldwest building as a future location for its department of human services.

"We will be working on a new capital improvement planning process," Routt County Manager Tom Sullivan said. "Through that process, we'll be identifying capital improvements."

Sullivan said he expects the process to be completed during the first three months of 2019.

"We need to have that identified when we start working on our 2020 budget," Sullivan said. "We have a lot to figure out."

Boyd said some local nonprofits have expressed an interest in occupying the office space.

"We've had some food and beverage places that are interested but not interested in buying the whole thing," Boyd said.